what's your favourite coming of age book

[pigoons]

It is a long long time since I was an angst ridden teenager (or should I say young adult) but I was wondering what your favourite coming of age book is?

You know the type of thing - unrequited love, disastrous first love (usually with an unsuitable), growing up and gaining new perspectives (maybe losing a few friends or ideals) along the way, wanting more from life, learning a few hard lessons etc etc ....

I have a soft spot for Jonathon Coe's The Rotters Club simply because it is so good at evoking the feeling of being young, and restless, and wanting there to be more to life ...

What's yours?

The Catcher in the Rye.

Bonjour Tristesse.

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

Probably as pp^ and there’s also The Rachel Papers.

Are you there god? It's me Margaret
Deenie
Forever
All by Judy Blume

Jane Gardam's The Summer After the Funeral.

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith. I still read it now and am 57!

How I Paid For College by Marc Acito

Basically anything by Judy Blume but Are You There God, it's Me Margaret will always be my absolute favourite.

Jane Gardem also, but Bilgewater.

Lives of girls and women- Alice Monroe
My brilliant friend- Elena Ferrante
Americanah- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Bonjour Tristesse- Francoise Sagan

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. It's so beautifully written. The young girl's voice is so sweet without being sentimental.
But I also love The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and The Reader by Bernhard Schlink.

@SickNotes - thanks for that recommendation. I adore Jane Gardam's writing and don't know that book.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a beautiful coming of age story.

Glad to see mention of The Goldfinch & Bonjour Tristesse as they are both on my bedside pile!

Judy Blume's Summer Sisters.

Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette winterson

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.

Prep by Curtis Sittinfeld is good.

A dog so small by Philppa Pear ce. I know it's a children's book but it leaves me with a contented ache. I reread it with my dd a few years ago and we both cried!

Catcher in the Rye

Forever by Judy Blume. Actually anything by Judy Blume. Voice of my teenage years

On a slightly different note - Frost in May by Antonia White. About the intensity of childhood and certainties and school and having all that whipped away from you. It’s set in a convent school and I have no knowledge or experience of this but I have loved this book for 30+ years.

A Ring of Endless Light (Madeleine L'Engle).

Précis from Wikipedia:
"The book tells of teenager Vicky Austin and her struggle to understand life and significance in the universe as she deals with her dying grandfather, while at the same time finding true romantic love."

A little love song by Michelle Magorian. Read it at 13, and remember feeling like it was a glimpse into what was to come - first love, becoming a woman...

Deenie by Judy Blume. I remember it being around the time that we were all worried about when we would get our first period! Now, I'm hopeful that I'll soon get my last one!
Also a book called The Debutantes by June Flaum Singer but I'm pretty sure it wasn't age appropriate but probably educational!